The mayor of the capital of Puerto Rico has called President Donald Trump “delusional” for claiming thousands of Americans did not die in Hurricane Maria.

San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz, who has sparred frequently with Mr Trump about his response to hurricane, responded with a tweet of her own, calling the president “delusional, paranoid, and unhinged from any sense of reality”.

“This is NOT about politics this was always about SAVING LIVES,” she added.

Ms Yulín Cruz was an outspoken critic of the administration's response to Hurricane Maria in the direct aftermath of the storm, as well as in the months that followed. She first earned the president’s ire in a press conference days after the hurricane hit, when she begged for help and claimed the government was “killing us with the inefficiency”.